Saturday, July 4, 2015

Egyptian soccer player criticizes Sisi in reflection of mounting discontent

Criticism this week by soccer player Ahmed al-Merghani of
general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s hard-handed repression of
dissent and failure to defeat a mushrooming insurgency in the Sinai peninsula
signals mounting discontent in Egypt.

Mr. Al-Merghani’s comments on his Facebook page are indicative
because they suggested the degree to which Mr. Al Sisi’s cult-like popularity
has diminished barely two years after he toppled elected president Mohammed
Morsi in a military coup and a year after the former general was voted into
office.

Soccer frequently serves as a barometer of political trends
in the Middle East and North Africa. US intelligence officials have said that
they routinely attended soccer matches in the region to glean clues as to where
a country is headed.

One official predicted developments in Egypt when he told
Quartz in 2013 that autocratic regimes frequently cover up burgeoning dissent
by blaming it on hooliganism.

Addressing Mr. Al Sisi, Mr. Al-Marghani said: "You told
the people come out and let me to fight terrorism. The people filled the
streets even though (fighting terrorism) should've been your job in the first
place. Ever since then everyone is dying, civilians, soldiers and policemen and
where are you? All we ever get from you is words."

The player described Mr. Al Sisi as a “failure” and asked “Is
a state of mourning not going to be declared for them and the television soaps
cancelled? Or are they not as important as the state prosecutor?”

Mr. Al Merghani’s remarks came days after jihadist insurgents
took their fight to a new level with coordinated attacks in the Sinai in which
at least 30 Egyptian soldiers were killed; the assassination of prosecutor
general Hisham Barakat, the most senior official to have been killed in Egypt
in a quarter of a century; and a police operation against a gathering of
leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood members who allegedly were abused
and executed.

Mr. Al Merghani was fired for his comments by Wadi Degla,
the only privately owned club in Egypt’s premier league.

The significance of Mr. Al-Merghani’s comments reminiscent
of political expressions of retired star Mohammed Aboutreika, is that they
broke with a tradition in which Egyptian players often saw the country’s
strongman as a father figure and refrained from associating themselves with any
form of dissent.

Authorities earlier this year froze Mr. Aboutreika’s assets
in a travel agency that was suspected of having had links to the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization immediately after Mr. Al
Sisi’s ascent to power. Mr. Aboutreika has long been believed to have Islamist
sympathies.

A groundswell of support for Mr. Aboutreika emerged on
social media immediately after the asset freeze. A number of soccer players, in
another rare brake with players’ reluctance to endanger their status, were
among those who expressed solidarity with the former player.

Mr. Al Merghani’s comments further reflected Mr. Al Sisi’s
inability, unlike his predecessors, to employ soccer as a tool to cement his
popularity and divert attention from popular grievances. Mr. Al-Sisi’s failure
to do so is closely linked to the deteriorating security situation in Egypt.

Concern that soccer stadia like in the waning years of
President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in a 2011 popular revolt in which
militant fans played a key role, would become venues of protest persuaded Mr.
Al-Sisi to keep stadia closed to the public during matches. A Cairo court last
month banned militant soccer fan groups as terrorist organizations.

Mr. Al-Sisi’s one attempt to reopen stadia in February was
immediately shelved after 20 fans were killed by security forces at a stadium
in Cairo during the first match for which a limited number of tickets were made
available.

In a reflection of Mr. Al-Sisi’s refusal to hold accountable
police and security forces notorious for their brutality and introduce security
sector reform, authorities charged 16 fans with having provoked the second
worst incident in Egyptian sporting history in cohorts with the Brotherhood.

Relatives of some of the defendants and their lawyers
charged that at least some of the fans had confessed as a result of torture. After
five days' of searching, Mahmoud Hemdan said he found his 21-year old brother Ashraf
and teenage nephew Ali "beaten and tortured" at a Cairo police
station.

"Ashraf is innocent. He told me he was beaten and
tortured with electric shocks to private parts of his body," Mr. Hemdan
told Agence France Presse.

Ali's mother, Nagat, said she was shocked when she saw her
14-year-old son Ali in jail. "I couldn't hug him -- his body was covered
in bruises and marks from electric shocks," she said.

Yasser Othman, another defendant, told a judge in a video
posted online that he was “hung from my arms and given electric shocks several
times. They even threatened to rape my wife.”

Mounir Mokhtar, a lawyer for some of the 13 defendants in
custody asserted that "all were tortured to extract confessions." Police
have denied using torture. Some of the confessions, including that of Ashraf
Hemdan, were broadcast on Egyptian television.

Mr. Al Merghani’s criticism of Mr. Al Sisi’s failure to
restore stability to Egypt reflects growing frustration among politicized
youth, many of whom are soccer fans who played a key role in protests on university
campuses and in popular neighbourhoods since the former general seized power.

Amnesty International, in a recently published report entitled
‘Generation Jail: Egypt's youth go from protest to prison,’ said “a generation
of young Egyptian activists that came to the fore around the ousting of
repressive ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011 is today languishing behind bars.” It
said that the “mass protests have given way
to mass arrests, as 2011’s ‘Generation Protest’ has become 2015’s ‘Generation
Jail.’”

Militant soccer fans have warned that the Sisi regime’s
repression is radicalizing youth who feel they no longer have anything to lose.
A host of shadowy, hitherto unknown groups have emerged in recent months
claiming responsibility for acts of political violence.

“This is a new generation. It’s a generation that can’t be
controlled. They don’t read. They believe in action and experience. They have
balls. When the opportunity arises they will do something bigger than we ever
did,” said a founder of one of Egypt’s foremost militant fan groups or ultras.

Added another original ultra: “Things will eventually burst.
When and where nobody knows. But the writing is on the wall.”

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile